very opposite to be the truth, saying:-" Habitual exertion is the greatest of all invigorators of character, and restraint and coercion in one form or another is the great stimulus to exertion. A life made up of danger, vicissitudes, and exposure is the sort of life which produces originality and resource. soldier or sailor on active service lives in an atmosphere of coercion by the elements, by enemies, by disease, by the discipline to which he is subjected."

There is some truth in Mr. Stephen's illustration of the beneficial influence of compulsion, but it is no answer to Mr. Mill's maxim; for without the use of freedom the most vigorous character cannot stir and must succumb. If Mr. Stephen, however, delights in that sort of coercion which brings danger, exposure, and hardships into a man's career, these conditions will be found in the communistic state; for there all physical labour is equally compulsory to all, and the avoidance of danger on the sea, in the mine, amongst explosive matter,* and dangerous machinery, the endurance of and exposure to rain, wind, heat, and cold, will present as many obstacles to overcome as will sufficiently stimulate exertion and attention.

* On the 19th of September, 1875, a terrific explosion took place by the bursting of a tugere at Spring Vale blast furnace, near Wolverhampton. Molten iron and cinders were scattered in all directions. A man named Weakers was burned to a cinder, and about six others were so frightfully injured that four of them died soon afterwards in the hospital.

SECTION III.

OF CIVIL OR SOCIAL LIBERTY AND ITS SUBDIVISIONS.

YIVIL or social liberty may be considered under the follow

CIVIL

ing subdivisions:

1. Liberty of speech and freedom of the press.

CHAPTER VIII.-LIBERTY OF SPEECH AND FREEDOM OF

THIS

THE PRESS.

HIS form of liberty has been claimed and advocated by all great legislators and social reformers. Robert Owen says: Everyone should be free as air to tell the world the undisguised impressions and reflections of his mind." Robespierre says: "The right of manifesting thought and opinion either by the Press or by any other manner, the right of assembling peaceably, and the free exercise of modes of worship, cannot be forbidden." Cabet states that the people of Icaria discuss in public, and all that is said is reported in the public papers, which are distributed by the state to all the citizens. Stuart Mill claims freedom of opinion and freedom of expression on four grounds:" 1. If any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we know, be true. 2. The silenced opinion may be partially true, and this partial truth can be

brought out by discussion only. 3. Atrue opinion when established is not believed to be true unless it is vigorously and earnestly contested. 4. An established opinion comes to be

held in a dead conventional way unless it is discussed."

That intellectual controversy and warfare carried on by discussion and writing is preferable to the results obtained by the application of physical force, is shown by Mr. Stephen in the following pointed manner:-" Civil war, legal persecution, the Inquisition, with all their train of horrors, form a less searching and effective conflict than that intellectual warfare from which no institution, no family, no individual man is free when discussion is free from legal punishment. The result of such a warfare is that the weaker opinion is rooted out to the last fibre, the place where it grew being seared as with a hot iron whereas the prison, the stake, and the sword only strike it down, and leave it to grow again in better circumstances."

The organization of the communistic state is eminently favourable to public discussion; for each Associated Home will not only contain meeting rooms of various sizes for the free use of its inmates, but there will also be situated in the same buildings, or in their immediate neighbourhood, the legislative halls, each of them containing room for 500 to 600 persons, where the people will assemble daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, as the circumstances require, in order to carry on the government of the country.

These legislative halls will all be connected one with the other by electric telegraphs, and the reports of speeches, propositions of laws, and results of votes will thus be transmitted without delay throughout the whole territory of the commonwealth. Considered in this light the expression of public opinion by means of popular legislative assemblies becomes of even greater importance than the liberty of the Press. Cabet tells us that "the liberty of the Press is of less value in Icaria than the right of speaking and proposing resolutions in the popular national assembly. The Icarians consider the speeches delivered in these assemblies as more expressive of public opinion than those conveyed by the public Press."

The communistic state cannot, however, dispense with the dissemination of opinion by newspapers, periodicals, and pamphlets, for the simple reason that thoughtful writing will

always surpass the best oratory. Besides, there are a great number of things, such as criticism on arts and sciences, the account of accidents, and the great diversity of general news, etc., all of which are more properly spread by print than by speech.

Those who have no clear insight into the working of communistic institutions imagine, that to write and publish a newspaper antagonistic to the established opinion must be an utter impossibility in a communistic state, and this for the simple reason that the state will provide neither materials nor labour for undertakings of which it does not approve. These surmises will, however, fall to the ground, when the following safeguards for the freedom of the Press are considered :

1. The communistic state, having proclaimed the inalienable right of man to the free expression of his opinion by any and all means, will publish a universal newspaper, into which every citizen will be allowed to insert his opinion in a concise and intelligible letter or article. These communications will fitly replace the space now occupied by hosts of advertisements, and the right of insertion, which every citizen of the communistic state can claim, will most favourably contrast with the refusal which letters now generally meet with when sent to the Press for publication.

2. Babeuf mentions the following arrangement as a safeguard :

"All writings are to be printed, and sent to all the libraries upon the demand of one of the assemblies of the people, or of a prescribed number of citizens."

3. Advantage may be taken in combined and voluntary labour, as is done by those who wish to procure for themselves the use of certain articles of luxury, as explained in Bk. I., ch. x., p. 40.

IN

CHAPTER IX.-INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY.

N a communistic state, every person will be permitted to make free use of all his faculties. This exercise of individual liberty is, however, subject to restraint as soon as it infringes upon the rights of others.

The present state of civilization has been regarded as eminently favourable to individual liberty, and individualism, as now exercised, has been frequently held up as greatly preferable to communism. The communistic state has been frequently described as totally destructive of individual liberty, inasmuch as it deprives every person of the freedom of doing what he likes, of eating what he likes, of dressing how he likes, of travelling when he likes, of working when he likes, of sleeping when he likes. The absurdity of these surmises will, however, at once become apparent, if the reader be reminded that the pleasure of sleeping, eating, drinking, travelling, and recreation must not snatch away the same pleasures from others. If the communistic state have sufficient travelling accommodation for every person to make a journey once a year, all will annually enjoy the pleasure of travelling. If accommodation cannot be afforded for a journey once a year, all persons will be permitted to make one every other year. This periodical travelling being extended to the whole of the adult population will be an immense progress in individual freedom, when compared with the present facilities of travelling, which can only be used as an enjoyment by a limited number of wealthy people, whilst the great bulk of the population are entirely deprived of the delight of seeing the beautiful scenery of foreign countries, and the interesting architectural monuments of their cities.

If the communistic state regulates the hours of going to bed and of rising at an appointed time, it does so in order to save labour. Early going to bed will allow lights and fires to be sooner extinguished, and the labour required for the manufacture of gas and candles, as well as the work of the coal miner, will thereby be greatly reduced. In rising early and at a fixed hour, breakfast can be got ready for all at one and the same hour, and labour will thereby be saved; which, in the communistic state, will cause a proportionate increase of individual liberty.

In dressing alike, and on a uniform pattern, the labour of the cloth-worker, calico-printer, pattern-designer, dyer, tailor, dressmaker, and others will be reduced. And, as every reduction of labour is so much gain to individual liberty, the communistic state becomes in this manner the great promoter of